At the present time one successful system for collecting capsules having a liquid fill surrounded by at least one layer of substantially rigid shell material comprises extruding capsules from an encapsulation head onto a vibrating conveyor covered with varying amounts of a cushioning and coating powder, such as starch. This mixture of powder and capsules is then conveyed to a vibrating sieve where the capsules overflow into a fluid bed dryer for final moisture removal before packaging. The underflow (starch) is recycled through a dryer to remove process moisture and delivered back to the vibrating conveyor. Such a process is set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,015,128, 3,310,612, and 3,389,194.
While generally satisfactory, this process is not entirely suitable because of a commercially significant amount of capsule breakage. This is due in large measure to the fact that the capsules expelled tend to collide with and rupture previously expelled capsules already on the conveyor. Also, the current vibrating system does not always provide sufficient uniform coverage of the cushioning powder in the impact zone to prevent capsule breakage, and as a result the capsules break and wetting of the starch with the liquid fill occurs necessitating process shutdown and cleanup.
Another capsule collection system has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,756,177. However, it is not a continuous process and still does not overcome capsule breakage because of the fact that the capsules must drop vertically onto a flat collector.